A conventional article joining system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H8-188223.
The article joining apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H8-188223 joins articles fed in from three conveying lines and comprises front conveyors, rear conveyors, and a collection conveyor.
The front conveyors are disposed in front (downstream side) in the conveying direction in each of the three conveying lines.
The rear conveyors are disposed behind (upstream side) in the conveying direction of the front conveyors in each of the three conveying lines.
One collection conveyor is disposed in front of the front conveyors close thereto.
With the above-described configuration, the rear conveyors to which the articles are not fed are operated at a “low speed”.
When the articles are fed to any one of a plurality of the conveying lines, the rear conveyor of the conveying line in which the articles were fed is operated at a “high speed”. Therefore, the articles present on the conveying line are conveyed at a high speed.
Furthermore, when the articles are fed to any one of a plurality of conveying lines ahead of the others, if the articles are introduced into one of the other conveying lines, the conveying line into which the articles were introduced still operates at a “low speed” and is operated at a “high speed” after the prescribed time elapses. As a result, the rear conveyor of the conveying line in which the articles have been conveyed ahead of the other lines has already been operated at a “high speed” before the rear conveyor of the conveying line into which the articles were introduced is operated at a “high speed”, the articles that were conveyed ahead of others have already been fed out to an accumulation conveyor, and the articles located on the conveying line that was switched to a “high speed” are fed out at a high speed following those articles that have been fed out. Therefore, the articles fed in a plurality of rows can be orderly joined in one row.
However, with the above-described conventional article joining system, when articles are conveyed with one conveying line, no control is conducted to enhance the conveying capacity of the conveyor in this conveying line. Therefore, the difference in the number of conveyed articles appears between the case where the articles are conveyed with one conveying line and the case where the articles are conveyed with a plurality of conveying lines. The resultant problem is that a constant conveying capacity cannot be maintained.